Sultan Mohammed Zakaria

#Bangladesh: India's Reckless Actions Are Worsening the Flood Crisis in Southeast Bangladesh For the first time in generations, Bangladesh's entire southeastern region is facing its worst flooding in history affecting millions of people. The cause? Indian authorities opened the gates of the Dumbur Reservoir in Tripura for the first time in three decades, releasing massive volumes of water into an already rain-soaked region. (Read: Could there have been flooding without India opening the Dumbur Reservoir gates? Perhaps yes, but on a significantly smaller scale. The sudden release of water from the dam has inundated the region to an extent it hasn't experienced in generations. International law obliges India to notify Bangladesh of any actions that could cause significant harm downstream. Yet, India's failure to notify Bangladesh before opening the gates has caused significant distress and damage. Unfortunately, the Dumbur Reservoir is just one of many dams India has built on the rivers that flow into Bangladesh. Of the 54 transboundary rivers shared between the two countries, India has constructed dams on at least 30 of them, with the Farakka Dam being the most infamous for its catastrophic impact on northern Bangladesh. India's unilateral construction of dams and its arbitrary control of water flows have become a constant threat to Bangladesh, causing either drought or flooding downstream. This reckless behavior has devastated millions of lives and wreaked havoc on the environment. For example, over 80% of Bangladesh's 20 million small farmers depend on water flowing through these transboundary rivers to grow rice. (Source: By inflicting such widespread damage, India is effectively breaching international law on a regular basis. Here are some of the key obligations that India is failing to uphold: 1) Under Articles 5 and 6 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997), upstream and downstream countries have the right to equitably and reasonably utilize shared waters. 2) Article 7 of the 1997 Convention, along with customary international law, obliges upstream countries, like India, to prevent significant harm to downstream nations, such as Bangladesh. 3) The Espoo Convention (1991) and customary international law mandate that upstream countries notify and consult with downstream states before undertaking any activities that could significantly affect shared waters. Yet, India has consistently ignored these obligations and has never acknowledged the rights of Bangladesh and its people under international law. Despite these hostile actions, Indian officials continue to claim that they are friendly neighbors—yet they wonder why Bangladeshis hold such deep resentment against them. Is India truly a friendly neighbor to Bangladesh? Their actions speak louder than their words.

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